T.O. is a diva, but he'll survive

Gwen Knapp

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, July 28, 2005

Photo: AMY SANCETTA

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Philadelphia Eagles receiver Terrell Owens (81) displays an award given to him by members of the Entertainment Tonight television show during Media Day at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., on Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2005. Owens and teammate Freddie Mitchell were given the award for "most innovative use of a game day hairdo". Super Bowl XXXIX will feature the Eagles against the New England Patriots. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta) Ran on: 02-06-2005
Terrell Owens displays an award for &quo;most innovative use of a game-day hairdo.&quo; less

Philadelphia Eagles receiver Terrell Owens (81) displays an award given to him by members of the Entertainment Tonight television show during Media Day at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., on Tuesday, Feb. ... more

The others were tough, rising above badly damaged body parts to play brilliantly in a championship showdown. But Cher is more than that. She is the queen of comebacks, repeatedly rescuing herself from bad career turns. Living a parallel existence in shoulder pads, Owens has been rapidly transformed from Super Bowl icon to greedy turncoat. In Cher terms, he has reached his infomercial phase not long after the Oscar win for "Moonstruck."

He will be back, though. We all know it. He will do something on the field this season that will defy us to turn away. He may not do it in an Eagles uniform, although a change of address seems less likely now that he has agreed to report to training camp under the terms of his puny, old contract.

"But I won't be happy, I can tell you that much," he told the Philadelphia Inquirer last week. A few weeks earlier, he had told the Miami Herald that he didn't care whether he was alienating fans: "People hated on Jesus. They threw stones at him and tried to kill him, so how can I complain or worry about what people think?"

A lot of people have chosen to interpret that comment as a sign that Owens sees himself as a Christ figure. Not fair. Clearly, he meant that if a messiah could be criticized, then why should he, a mere football player, expect better?

Still, you have to give credit to T.O. for his keen sense of the outrageous. It kind of takes you back to the days of belly-baring Bob Mackie outfits on the Sonny and Cher show. Yes, it all seems so tame now, but you don't have to go back to the '70s to see the inflation of shock value. A year ago, we had never heard of a running back who returned to the NFL after taking a season off to study holistic medicine and relish the freedom from job- related marijuana restrictions. Yes, Ricky Williams has quite a bit of Cher in him, too, although the wedding dress he wore when posed with Mike Ditka for the cover of Sports Illustrated didn't show enough skin.

Besides, T.O. stacks up better alongside the diva. She has one name; he goes by initials. She stoked controversy among prudes by playing Meryl Streep's lover in "Silkwood" in 1983; he did the same by appearing in a TV skit with Nicollette Sheridan in 2004. Cher stayed with Sonny too long; T.O. is now implying that he stood by David Joseph, the agent who missed a deadline for a free-agency filing, too long. He has a persecution complex; she sang "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves." They both have killer abs.

Finally, they are both the quintessential survivors. I have no idea how Owens will recover from the damage he inflicted on himself this year. I just know that he will.

He wriggled out of the free-agency mistake and got what he wanted, a ticket out of San Francisco and a job with the Eagles. A typical player would have been stuck under an old contract with the 49ers, or at the very least, been forced to stay in Baltimore after he was traded there. Not T.O. He manipulated the whole situation so deftly that missing the filing deadline came to seem like a deliberate stand against the banalities of paperwork. He also came across as loyal for not firing Joseph after the error.

But now, of course, Joseph is gone, replaced by Drew Rosenhaus, who insists that Owens, with a contract of $49 million over seven years, is underpaid. Their showdown with the Eagles has brought them only frustration, and by even implying that he might hold out, Owens squandered most of the admiration he gained by playing and excelling in the Super Bowl so soon after surgery. Even his biggest detractors had to respect his toughness that night.

Then he went after his quarterback in the offseason, saying that Donovan McNabb toadied up to team management and implying that McNabb hurt the team by becoming fatigued in the Super Bowl. The comments brought up memories of Owens' petty swipes at Jeff Garcia.

At the ESPYs two weeks ago, Owens and McNabb both sat in the audience, decked out formally, and you had to wonder whether they ran into each other. The whole scene was reminiscent of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman at the first Oscars after they split up. Would they ever reconcile? How could they? Or has T.O. gone too far this time?

The answer is yes, but it won't matter. He has gone too far many, many times, and he always survives, then pushes the boundaries outward again.